Colour-coded traffic light nutrition labels on food are much more helpful to consumers than information presented numerically, according to a new study presented at the recent European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Traffic light labelling, which uses colours - red, orange and green - to rate the nutritional content of food according to how healthy it is, has already been tried out in several European countries. The study found that consumers favoured a consistent labelling format across all products, and were 5 times more likely to identify healthier foods with traffic light labelling than with guideline daily amount labelling. The study suggests that traffic light labelling is helpful to all consumers, regardless of ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status, say the researchers.